Years active 2014 to present | Name Debra Crew | |
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Born December 20, 1970 (age 53) ( 1970-12-20 ) Occupation President and COO, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company | ||
Debra Ann Crew (born December 20, 1970) is the President and Chief executive officer of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. She previously held senior management positions at PepsiCo, Mars, Incorporated, and Dreyer's. She was named to the Fortune list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2014 and 2015.
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Education and military service
Crew earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Denver and her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
She served in the United States Army from 1993 to 1997 in the field of military intelligence, achieving the rank of captain.
Business career
Crew began her business career at Kraft Foods in 1997, where she filled a number of management positions, culminating in Category Business Director in the Foodservice Division. After seven years at Kraft, she moved to Dreyer's, a subsidiary of Nestlé, where she worked from 2004 to 2008, rising to Senior Vice President of Marketing, Frozen Snacks. From 2008 to 2010 she was General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer of Petcare US, at Mars, Incorporated.
Crew joined PepsiCo in April 2010 as President, Western European Region, headquartered in Geneva. In August 2012 she was named to the newly created position of President of Pepsico Americas Beverages, which incorporated responsibility for the North American operations of the Gatorade and Tropicana brands, the Latin America Beverages operation, the North America warehouse sales operation, and the Beverage Growth Ventures Group. In August 2014 she was named President and General Manager of PepsiCo North America Nutrition.
In October 2014 Crew departed PepsiCo to become President and Chief Commercial Officer of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. She had been a director of the company since December 2013. The switch from the food to cigarette industry surprised observers, as well as the timing, since she had headed PepsiCo's North America Nutrition for only two months. In September 2015 her title changed to President and COO. As COO she oversaw $8.6 billion of the company's estimated $10.7 billion in post-merger sales.
On January 1, 2017 Crew became the CEO of Reynolds American, taking over from former CEO Susan Cameron. She is one of the few women CEOs of a major American tobacco company, in what was an unusual transition in which a major company appoints two women CEOs consecutively.
Memberships
In 2013 Crew was named to the board of directors of Stanley Black & Decker.
Honors and recognition
Crew has been named three times to Fortune magazine's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, ranking No. 44 in 2014, No. 46 in 2015 and No. 47 in 2016.